Georgia Says Villages in Kodori Shelled

The villages of Chkhalta and Azhara in the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia came under fire late on March 11, Georgian media sources are reporting. There have been no casualties, according to the reports. Officials in Tbilisi have already indicated that the shooting began from the Abkhaz-controlled territories.

Reports say that GRAD rockets hit the backyard of a local school in Azhara.

Officials also said that Russian army helicopters were flying over the gorge last night.

?The first news about a helicopter flying over the villages of Chkhalta, Azhara and Gentsvisi broke at about 10 pm [Tbilisi time] on March 11. It was then followed by shelling; rockets were falling in the nearby mountains and were apparently being fired from [the Abkhaz-controlled village of] Tkvarcheli,? Malkhaz Akishbaia, head of the Abkhaz government-in-exile, said on March 12.

The Abkhaz side has already denied the Georgian side?s allegations that rockets were fired from Sokhumi-controlled areas.

Foreign Minister of breakaway Abkhazia Sergey Shamba told Imedi TV early on March 12 that it was ?an ordinary, routine clash? between local militias, led by rebel warlord Emzar Kvitsiani and Georgian forces located in upper Kodori Gorge.

?These kinds of clashes have been occurring in the gorge time and time again; but it seems that in this recent case the exchange of fire was more intensive. Spring is coming and the [rebel militias] are expected to intensify their activities,? Shamba said.

Last October, GRAD rockets exploded near the village of Azhara. The Georgian side claimed that the rockets were launched by the Abkhaz side from Tkvarcheli. 

UN observers who investigated the incident, however, reported that the rockets could not have come from behind the Abkhaz lines and said the rockets were fired from nearby hills.

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